Aboriginal & Northern Affairs
Manitoba Community Economic Development Capacity Index Tool
User Guide
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Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
What does this tool provide?....................................................................................................................... 3
What does this tool NOT provide? .............................................................................................................. 6
Step-by-Step Descriptions ............................................................................................................................ 6
Part A: Community Profile......................................................................................................................... 6
Part B: Community Economic Development Capacity Index ..................................................................... 8
Analyzing Your Results ............................................................................................................................... 12
Developed By:
Ken Sanderson
Version:
Year:
1.3
2012
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Introduction
It is becoming increasingly well-known that economic development is critical for the growth,
sustainability and health of a community. Unfortunately, as many communities begin to venture down
this path, it becomes apparent that certain tools are missing from the toolbox, so to speak.
For many communities, there is no widely shared vision or any plan in place. For the most part, people
are not even aware of their own capacities to carry out economic projects. Some try to address this by
paying large sums of money to consultants to write a report. Others are simply paralyzed to inaction.
Still others, fortunate enough to have capacities in place, manage somehow to succeed.
The concept behind this tool is to empower you as a community leader. You need to data and a process
that your community can have ownership and control over. Most importantly, in these years of scarce
resources, you need this empowerment to be cost-effective.
This is precisely where this tool can assist you1. It can provide you information and a pulse of your
community’s capacities, while only costing you a bit of your effort.
This tool was developed by Aboriginal & Northern Affairs and is offered free for your use.
What does this tool provide?
One of the key benefits of the tool is that it can often help an employee or council member tasked with
economic development get a firm grasp on the subject. To often people are faced with the enormous
task of “economic development” without having any tangible way of breaking down the concept into
manageable pieces. Going through this tool will help inform such individuals of the kinds of
considerations they will want to keep in mind as they plan with and for their community.
The other significant benefit of the tool is the fact that it is completely flexible. The exact way in which
you wish to deploy the use of this tool is up to you. If you wish to pull a small team together and go
through the tool in an afternoon, so be it. If you wish to hold a facilitated community workshop to go
through and populate the tool with information, so be it. The choice is yours.
There is no right or wrong way to use the tool. The only truly static principle is that your responses to
the questions should be as accurate and honest as possible. Intentionally biased responses, positive or
negative, will diminish the value of the results from this tool.
This tool is divided into 2 sections. The first section is your Community Profile. In this section you will
find some statistical and demographic data, the various regions that your community is under, and a
1
Disclaimer: Data presented here are based on public data available through Statistics Canada and Indian &
Northern Affairs. The creators of this tool are not responsible for the accuracy of these 3rd party data, which is
provided for information purposes only. This tool is in no way intended to replace the need for strategic plans or
other such due diligence.
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number of questions about the services and amenities of your community. The data presented here are
only available for communities that the Census specifically reports on. Smaller communities, typically,
will not have the data available.
You may also find that the data is not exactly the same as what is posted on the Stats Can website.
Although the datasets used in this tool come directly from Census data, random rounding from Stats
Canada results in numbers that are slightly different. The main purpose for presenting the demographics
is not for the numbers themselves, but for the trends. Is the population going up or down? Are houses in
more or less state of repair? As well as other such questions.
Specifically, this section covers:
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The various regions your community is in
Population from the past 3 census years
Demographic information
Local government revenues
Health services
Emergency response services
Recreation facilities/assets
Library access
Business supports
Largest local employers
All of this information becomes a useful basis for creating a community marketing plan. Many
communities miss out on the opportunity to market their community to businesses, potential new
residents, or to past residents that have moved away. Communities need to be growing in businesses
and population to be sustainable.
This first section of the tool is OPTIONAL only. Whatever you input into this first part of the tool has no
bearing on the actual results of the index assessment. The purpose for this profile part is to help begin
forming the foundation of a community marketing plan. Every community ultimately needs to market
itself to maintain a population or to grow. This marketing is not only important to tell your community’s
story “out there,” but it is also important to attract previous residents who may have moved away for
some reason or another.
The second part of the tool discusses the actual community capacity. These questions are based on a
logic model that sets planning, leadership & support, economic champions, and economic assets as the
four key ingredients to a community’s capacity to engage in community economic development. The
model is as follows:
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The model is illustrated as a wheel in order to make it clear that undeveloped areas will leave ruts that
can impact the speed at which a community can “roll” down the road to progress.
The questions under each section are designed in such away that community leaders using this tool can
form action plans or be equipped with information to help in the development of strategic plans. These
questions can also help guide specific economic development employees in their own work plans.
Finally, since there is no cost other than a bit of time, a community can use this tool to develop a
baseline and use it again at any time to measure progress or impacts projects may have had.
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What does this tool NOT provide?
This tool will not replace the need for strategic planning. Although it provides a strong basis for
developing plans, the work and due diligence that goes into a formal planning process is still important.
The tool is really a sign-post offering direction and important considerations for people to keep in mind
while a planning process is starting or under way.
Step-by-Step Descriptions
Part A: Community Profile
Your community: The tool was designed to make the process work as easily as possible for you. Cell B3
is a drop down list containing about 430 communities in Manitoba. Find yours and select it in the box.
If your community does not appear in the list, select “Not in list” and enter your community in cell F3.
Region: If your community was in the drop down list, you will see a number of cells now automatically
populated with some information. Here you will find what region your community falls into in the
following areas:
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Manitoba Métis Federation region
Regional health authority region
Regional development corporation region
Community Futures Development Corporation region
Treaty area
Tribal Council (if your community is a First Nation)
These regions are provided so that you can explore partnerships or available programs and services.
Type of Government: Simply select that which applies to you.
Population: In this section, if you found your community in the drop down list, you will see a number of
different fields automatically populated with information that is applicable to your community. For
some communities, not all data will be available. All data provided comes from Statistics Canada, Indian
and Northern Affairs Canada, or Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs.
Population data is shown from the past three censuses using Statistics Canada for most communities,
INAC data for First Nations, and Aboriginal & Northern Affairs data for Northern Affairs communities.
Note: Due to the nature of the way Stats Can reports its findings (random rounding), numbers are never
100% exact or even the same across the various publications. Also this tool used the data from the
Community Information Database (http://www.cid-bdc.ca/Tableviewer/tableview.aspx) which relies
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solely on the long form census data, whereas the community profiles Stats Can puts out is based on the
short form data.
That being said, the stats are presented not for an exact number, as that is not particularly important,
but for the trend. Is the population or a specific indicator trending up or down across the last three
Censuses?
Community Well-Being (CWB) Index - is a means of measuring socio-economic well being . The index
score is a single number that can range from a low of 0 to a high of 100. It is composed of data on
income, education, housing conditions and labour force activity
Income – the income component of the CWB Index is defined in terms of total income per
capita.
Education – this component is comprised of two variables: “High school plus” the proportion of
a community’s population 20 years and over that has obtained at least a high school certificate;
“university” the proportion of a community’s population, 25 years and older, that has obtained
a university degree at the bachelor’s level or higher
Housing – the housing component comprises of indicators of housing quantity and quality.
Housing quantity is defined as the proportion of the population living in dwellings that contain
no more than one person per room. Housing quality is defined as the proportion of the
population living in dwellings that are not in need of major repairs.
Labour Force Activity -This component is comprised of two variables: labour force participation
– the proportion of the population, aged 20 – 65, which was involved in the labour force the
week prior to census day; and employment – the percentage of labour force participants, aged
20 – 65, that was employed in the week prior to census day
Next, there are 11 demographic indicators listed for your community (if the data is available). These are
fairly straight-forward and help to tell the story of your community.
The last two fields are ratios. The first, Labour Force Replacement, is a ratio of children 0-14 (future
labour force entrants) to people 44-64 (future retirees). If the number is greater than one, your
community is in good shape in the sense that it is growing community with a future labour force that is
at least replacing your current one. If it is less than one, you face the challenge of diminishing human
resources. In a case like this, you might want to consider how to market your community as a place of
choice for new potential or previous residents.
The second of these rations is the Population Dependency, which is an age-population ratio of those
typically not in the labour force (the dependent part) and those typically in the labour force (the
productive part). It is used to measure the pressure on productive population. The bigger the number,
the more dependent the community is. That is, for a ration greater than 1, there are more dependents
that there are working age people.
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The next section of statistics is location quotients. The location quotient economic analysis technique
uses employment data in an industry to compare how much employment there is in a community or
region, compared to the amount of employment in that industry at the national or provincial level. The
location quotient (LQ) is helpful to examine the status of the local economy, to understand its’ strengths
and weaknesses and to identify potential opportunities. The location quotient is a number value which
will identify if a community has more employment (LQ greater than 1), less employment (LQ less than 1)
or similar employment (LQ equal to one) within an industry, compared to the rest of the province.
These quotients can be useful in getting a high level idea of the skill sets you might expect in the
community. It may also illuminate some potential economic opportunities. If your community is not
particularly active in retail, for example, why not? Perhaps there is an opportunity there.
Local Government Revenue: Here, you can take a quick look at where your community’s resources are
coming from and what change there has been over time between 2 years of your choice.
For Yr 1, take an earlier year (for example, 2003) and for Yr 2, select a later year (2009 for example). The
tool will then calculate the change over time for that line item.
Health Services: Some basic info on what health services are available in the community. This is
important for attracting and retaining residents and businesses.
Emergency Services: What law enforcement and fire prevention/fighting resources are in the
community? This has an impact on insurance for businesses and home-owners alike.
Recreation Facilities: What the amenities in the community? Many people, business or otherwise, look
for entertainment and recreation options in a community.
Library Access: Libraries have a profound impact on literacy and education. What resources are there in
your community?
Business Support: Are there any business associations, chambers of commerce or groups in your
community?
Local Employment: What are the biggest sources of employment in your community?
Part B: Community Economic Development Capacity Index
There are 20 questions in this section, each of which contains a number of sub-questions. They are
divided into the categories identified in the logic model illustrated previously in this document.
There are 5 questions under Planning, 5 under Leadership & Support, 5 under Economic Champions, and
5 under Economic Assets. Every question is worded for a ‘yes, we do this or have this’ or a ‘no, we do
not do this or have this.’ Because there is a sufficient level of detail in each question set, every “no”
answer can potentially become an action for your community to consider later on.
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The most important thing here is to be as accurate as possible. The true value and benefits of this tool
come from data and assessments that are as accurate as possible. The purpose of the assessment is not
to compare one community against another, but for a community to compare itself across periods of
time to measure its own progress.
A description of the questions are as follows:
Planning
1. Vision: This first question set deals with the starting point for any community – the vision.
Where is your community going? What would the residents like to see in the future for their
community? Because this is a foundational element to succeeding as a community, this question
set is heavily weighted. This is the “Where are we going?” part of the process.
It is not enough to say “yes, we have a vision.” The sub-questions here probe what that really
means. Has the community been involved in it development? Is it publicly displayed? Does it
truly guide staff actions and program planning?
2. Community Economic Development Plan: Building on the community vision it is important to
have a plan of action to determine how your community is going to get there. This is the “How
will we get there?” part of the process.
There are some critical elements to this to understand. One of these is the concept of the plan
addressing the future generations – in other words, sustainability and environmental integrity.
Sub-questions L and N mention economic activity evaluation and leakage studies. These are
important. A community should consider analyzing where money is being spent to determine
how much of that is staying in the community.
Some communities may require immigration to support their economic development plans. If
this is the case, the plan should address this in the “social-welfare considerations.” Immigration
will impact schools, housing, health services, recreation, community cohesiveness, etc. Failure
to account for these types of considerations could result in community discord or backlash.
Similarly, recruiting from outside the community (even if it not immigration from foreign
countries) may be required and should be taken into consideration under “human resource
considerations.”
3. Comprehensive Land Use Plan: Planning how scarce land resources will be allocated or used is
critical to develop along side the vision and the community economic development plan. A
community that allows whatever to be built wherever is neither appealing to the eyes nor
conducive to proper growth.
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4. Industrial Development Plan: Businesses in a community should not be limited to ‘mom and
pop’ shops, but should explore all manner of sectors, including the potential for an industrial
sector. Will there be warehouses in the community? What about a business concentrated on a
local gravel pit? Plans need to be developed to ensure that these resources and ideas are done
in a strategic manner.
The main concept here is to understand that “industrial” can mean anything from gravel pits to
mines to food processing plants. It might also include green industries, such as wind mill farms,
solar farms, or other such innovative concepts.
5. Education and Training Plan: Has your community determined a plan to educate and train the
local labour force? What educational and professional development resources are in place in the
community for your young people and existing workforce?
There are two ways to look at this. First, you can develop plans to meet the current needs of
active employment opportunities in the community. Second, you can shape plans to train
people in areas that you may wish to develop economically. The location quotients in the Profile
section might be particularly helpful here as well.
Leadership and Support
6. Local government support for CED: Does the leadership of your community support community
economic development? Do they understand that CED is different than community
development in that it has a special focus on economy? At the same time, does leadership see
economy in the broader sense, beyond simply business or entrepreneurial development? Do
they dedicate resources to community economic development?
7. Leadership Development Plan: Does your community have a program in place to train, mentor,
or develop new and existing leaders? No leader walks into the job perfectly skilled. It is
important that some support for skill development be in place.
8. Operational strength: Is your leadership well staffed and resourced? Is the leadership office well
organized? Does leadership have access to data and advice? Operational strength is very
important to successfully managing projects or implementing plans.
Does your community leadership have the ability to manage projects?
9. Community Support: How engaged are the community members? Is there a high level of
participation at community meetings and events? There is a term called the economic leakage
that refers to resources and dollars leaving a community. Much of this can occur when
community members shop in retail outlets outside the community or outlets not owned by
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members in the community. Support for local business is a critical element to economic
capacity.
10. Growth potential: Do community members want growth? Can your community services and
amenities handle growth? Often, communities seek growth and pursue attracting new business
or residents, but forget to consider whether schools and daycares and other critical community
elements have the capacity to support that growth.
Economic Champions
11. Business Organizations: Are there any business organizations or networking groups in your
community? Are there larger regional groups that your community can tap into? Your
community may or may not be big enough for such a business organization. You will need to
assess the viability of starting such an entity in your community. Sometimes it is equally
beneficial to develop stronger connections with a more regional organization.
12. Downtown: Is there a downtown in your community? Is there a downtown organization? Do
merchants located downtown coordinate together? An official downtown may not be realistic
for every community, but even for communities that have half a dozen retail businesses it may
be beneficial to create a small cluster of critical mass.
13. Community Marketing Plan: Is there a plan in place? Is someone assigned to championing this?
Are promotional materials developed to market your community? This is where Part A of the
tool can help in th development of a marketing plan for the community. Why should a business
set up shop in your community? Why should someone seek to live in your community?
14. Business Development: Are there any business start-up, expansion or attraction programs in
place in your community? What supports do you have in place?
15. Community economic development organization: A CEDO is a highly effective champion to have
in place if it is well managed and furnished with a vision and plan. Often economic development
projects fail if they do not have someone driving them on a daily basis. If there is not one
established in your community? Are there regional organizations (like Community Futures or
Regional Development Corporations) that you can build stronger relationships with?
Economic Assets – concentrated on the enablers of economic development. If there are certain
infrastructures lacking, your community’s economic development options will be limited. It is important
to know from the start what options are not on the table for lack of proper infrastructure.
16. Basic Infrastructure: This covers things like running water, sewage and waste management,
energy. The presence, or lack thereof, of basic infrastructure is absolutely critical to the level of
economic success a community can expect.
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17. Transportation Infrastructure: Are there winter roads, permanent roads, docks for water
transport, railways, airports or air strips? All of these have direct impacts on the profitability of
any economic venture as well as the economic viability of individual people and families.
18. Financial infrastructure: Are there banks, ATMs, Interac, etc. in the community? Access to
financial infrastructure is foundational to wealth creation and management. How can one save
money or contribute to an RRSP if there is no access to the service and no awareness of it?
19. Industrial Site: This could be as simple as a gravel pit or as complex as a section of the
community zoned for specific uses.
20. ICT infrastructure: Canada has moved a long way in the growth of the knowledge economy. ICT
is the gateway to that economy that an increasing number of people – especially in rural and/or
Aboriginal communities – are becoming involved in. ICT is also a significant enabler to business.
Analyzing Your Results
There are two ways that you can view the results of your answers. First, in the sheet titled “Data
Summary” you can view your data numerically. Each question in the assessment has a value and the
values are summed up individually or by category. As well as the raw number, a column will depict what
percentage of the total maximum value you have reached.
You can also view the total for each major category, for example, Planning. Finally, you can view your
community’s overall CED capacity as a numeric score out of 500. This score will be color coded to help
you identify high or low capacity. Highest capacity is dark green, while the lowest capacity is dark red.
Looking at the overall score can help your community decide on whether you are ready to dive straight
into an economic project or if you should focus some effort on capacity building.
The second way to view your results is in the sheet titled “Results.” Here you can view your result as a
wheel. If your community were perfect, the results would be displayed as a perfect circle. However, no
community is perfect, and so there will be ‘ruts’ in the wheel. You can see in a single view which areas
your community is strong in and which your community is weak in.
Viewing the data in this way, you can already begin to pick out some of the potential next steps or
priority areas for your community to build up its CED capacity.
The major benefit of viewing the data in these two formats is that you can begin to measure progress in
your community. You will be able to see the state of your community’s capacity today, compared to a
year ago, or even a month ago. The point is, you own your data and the process required to obtain that
data.
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Concluding Note
As we seek to continually improve the tool and monitor it effectiveness, any results that you feel
comfortable sharing would be greatly appreciated. Your information would never be used for anything
beyond measuring the effectiveness of the tool and viewing aggregated data without your explicit
permission.
Questions or results to share can be directed to:
Ken Sanderson, Policy Analyst
Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs
Ken.sanderson@gov.mb.ca
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